The present invention relates to a powdery foaming agent with good stability suitable for cake and fry batters and premixes therefor, having saturated monoglyceride, saturated diglycerine monoester, lecithin and polyphosphate as essential ingredients.
The foaming agent formulated with emulsifier is often used on preparation of cake batter and fry batter and the foaming property thereof originates from .alpha. crystals of monoglyceride. The .alpha. crystals are thermodynamically unstable and, as they transfer to .beta.' and .beta. crystals in sequence, the foaming property gradually decreases. How to maintain the .alpha. crystals for long term has been a significant theme in the field of food improvers.
For the cake batter, gel-like foaming agents, in which the .alpha. crystals of monoglyceride are combined with other emulsifiers for foods, for example, propyleneglycol fatty acid ester, sorbitan fatty acid ester and sucrose fatty acid ester and which are stabilized in sorbitol, are routinely used. They have however drawbacks that the handling property is poor, the effect drops on strong agitation and the foaming property after converted to premix also decreases over time. On the other hand, with respect to the powder type foaming agents, various methods have been proposed (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 62-503021, Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 63-472, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 176436 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 1-240134), but they have a drawback that the moisture in raw material of premix, particularly in wheat flour migrates to the side of powdery foaming agent to decrease the forming power over time, thus limiting the life to 12 months at 25.degree. C. at longest. The keeping situation of premix on user side cannot necessarily be said to be good, hence the stability under summer conditions of 30.degree. to 35.degree. C. is required and the development of powdery foaming agent with good stability has been desired.
As a result of diligent studies, the inventors have developed a powdery foaming agent having easy handling property, being capable of adding to cake and fry premixes and being excellent in the foaming stability also at 30.degree. to 35.degree. C. in summer.